Not every USB-C cable is the same cable
Identical connectors, wildly different capabilities. A short, practical guide to telling them apart before you buy the wrong one.
USB-C solved the problem of which way up the plug goes and created a new one: two cables that look identical can differ by a factor of forty in data speed and by a factor of five in power delivery.
The three things a cable can be good at
Power. Cables are rated for how much they can carry. A cheap cable may top out well below what your laptop expects, and will simply charge slowly rather than tell you why.
Data. Many bundled cables carry power well and data barely at all. If a drive feels slow, the cable is a more likely culprit than the drive.
Video. Driving a display needs specific capabilities that plenty of otherwise good cables do not have.
How to buy one without reading a specification
Look for the rating printed on the cable or its housing, prefer a cable that states both its wattage and its data speed, and keep one known-good cable for diagnosis. If a device misbehaves, swapping in the cable you trust is the fastest test available.
Sample article — placeholder editorial content for the Phase 0 shell.
Where to find these
Some links below are affiliate links. We may earn a commission if you buy through them. It does not change what we recommend.
Provenance
- How this was made
- Original reporting and writing by Webitlio.
- Reviewed by
- Editorial desk